Vita CFW leaked, Coldbird leaves the scene

There’s lots of things to be said about what just happened over the past couple days, and sadly I don’t have much time right now, but answers will be given asap to all of you. What matters for now is that a PSP Kernel exploit, as well as a CFW relying on it, fully working on the PS Vita, was leaked 2 days ago by a “Sam Jordam” guy on Youtube (download links below). One of the main persons behind this work (which wasn’t supposed to be released now), famous PSP developer Coldbird, decided to leave the scene today, after this leak happened.

I will give as much details as I can in the days to come, but for now let me just say that the files that were leaked have been confirmed by Coldbird to contain a Kernel exploit, but these files are encrypted, and potentially useless for anybody who does not have strong reverse engineering skills. Coldbird has confirmed to me (and in his blog) he has no plan anymore to release this CFW, so what we have here is a Kernel exploit that will most likely be wasted since I expect Sony to patch the vulnerability in a firmware update.

In addition to the Kernel exploit leak, the name of a game with a usermode exploit (as well as the user mode exploit) was also leaked. That game is the PSP Mini Urbanix, which, if you can read between the lines, readers of this blog already knew was vulnerable. If you are on 1.81, I recommend you get this game before it gets removed from the PSN, fully knowing that as of now, I personally don’t have anything running on this exploit (in particular no VHBL release is ready for this yet).

People who are running on 1.80 with the Monster Hunter exploits might want to stay on 1.80. If anything useful ever comes out of the kernel exploit, I am sure it will run fine on Monster Hunter as well.

At this point I think a bit more info is required about the leaker and how all of this was leaked. A private group of beta testers existed for this exploit, and in a sad chain of events, this person (who goes by the names of Sam Jordam, Batman:beyond, or ipadboy, among other of his identities) got his hands on these files through some basic social engineering, and decided to publish them.

It needs to be emphasized that all people involved were aware of the legal risk of publicly releasing such a tool, but this person seems to not be afraid of that (good for him, I guess, he probably thinks he can succeed where geohot and graf_chokolo failed). The hackers even went as far as encrypting the files to limit the damage in case those files were stolen, which is why, in their current state, the files are useless.

I also need to insist on the fact that, in unrelated events, this person had threatened the security of my site several times in the past, involving threats of hacking this site, attempts at stealing information, illegal port and vulnerability scanning, as well as threats to some members of our community and some of our moderators. This person also insists on his video that hackers were trying to hide this hack from the scene in order to enjoy the hack for themselves, which is not true. Simply, most hackers working on that type of thing are realistic about the legal risks of enabling piracy on Sony’s latest device, which doesn’t seem to have crossed that individual’s mind. In other words, a truly great person, who doesn’t seem to worry he is doing illegal stuff.

Some of you might question the decision from Coldbird to leave the scene and not release his work after this. Please understand that it was not an easy decision for him, but there is way too much risk in releasing a Kernel exploit on the PS Vita right now, from a legal point of view. Sam Jordam took the risk of being the first person to release a tool that could easily enable PSP piracy on the PS Vita, while reasonable hackers were all clever enough to avoid these dangerous waters until know, and keep their work for themselves. Will this lead to Sony taking legal action against this guy? I can’t tell for sure, but other hackers didn’t want to be the ones testing the waters for that. Their files were stolen, so legally everything is on this guy’s shoulders, and I understand that nobody else would want to share the legal burden with a leaker, so there is a huge risk nobody will ever even try to touch these files.

There is also the feeling in the community right now that this person should not be helped. He decided to leak some files? Good for him, now let’s let him reverse engineer the files, and figure out a way to get it to work for everybody else. And if some of you disagree with this and think he could use some help, for the good of the community, then knock yourself out, the files are out in the open, I won’t judge (I’m sure most users would be happy with a PSP Kernel exploit on the vita right now).

As far as I’m concerned, I will try to get at least VHBL to run on the Game exploit, in order for this to not go to waste, and some people have already offered some help on that (they will be named in time).

Keep in mind that all that’s happening today is the result of the actions of one single person, and that is the only person to blame.

TL,DR: Some files containing a User mode exploit in Urbanix, as well as a Kernel exploit (that still has to be reverse engineered) were leaked by a youtube user named Sam Jordam. This guy was a known a##hole for some time already, and has proven to be up to his reputation. The files he stole then leaked are encrypted and not usable for anybody in their current state. One of the only persons who could have helped with this, famous hacker Coldbird, decided to leave the scene after this. There is so far one can go for the love of homebrews.

Bye Coldbird, and thanks for everything !

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wololo

We are constantly looking for guest bloggers at wololo.net. If you like to write, and have a strong interest in the console hacking scene, contact me either with a comment here, or in a PM on /talk!

Hey, I know you probably dont want to be bothered by a newb, but i was wondering if you could explain how to modify the mh save and leaked files? I would love to have vhbl as i bought my vita with 1.8.1. Also, i was wonering, if you are one of the (few?) people who know of this exploit and wololo is close to making another vhbl for urbanix, why would you lay down a hint like that, that may possibly get this patched? seems like you wouldn’t want anyone to find out so that you could have vhbl AND stay on the latest firmware. Idk, maybe im way off, let me know, Thanks. 😀

Someone with Aero Racers on psp want to try and do what DJ Android has claimed? I am skeptical about this. Why release another title name? Someone can try to make a savedata crash to hbl via psp and not update the vita.

Can we have anyone else work on this im really sorry about this coldbird that all your hard work has to go to waist but im hoping you would one day come back to the ps vita community i one for myself enjoy cfw for the ps vita if it were released wololo thanks for your hard work and you also coldbird thanks to the *** hole who messed up something we been dreaming about deeply i may not be a hacker but ill soon become one and one day i can also bring something for the community

Kernel exploit for PSP emu on Vita (and a user mode exploit as well) – jerk got leaked exploit files, but then discovered they had been encrypted by the creator… and since he was concerned he’d never have access to the hack (it had no set release date), he released the encrypted files and game name to try to force the creators to release publicly.

So he didn’t completely knowingly ruin the exploit… he was just a selfish idiot all around and then his plan kinda backfired ;p

so this game has a kexploite for 1:81? and the files are encrypted for the cfw? i can decrypt them with ease. but what this dude has done is wrong and right at the same time. i thank him for leaking greedy hackers work to everyone. what i dislike is that he did it at the wrong time.

exactly. Why cant it be like the 360 scene. They always release things without any problems. EVERYTHING works in the 360 scene. NO DRM DONGLES, NO Devs crying, NONE of the *** we get in the PS Scenes.

How about the PS Scenes look for some GOOD devs, some that RELEASE things and DONT CRY when things get leaked. Oh NOTHING will be LEAKED as it will get released so you cant leak something thats already released can you.

To the PS Scene devs, GROW UP and STOP CRYING! You’ve had ISO backups playing for months so WHY didn’t you release it? BECAUSE YOU ARE ***! WE DONT NEED YOU IN THE SCENE. We need people that WILL release things and NOT HIDE them from the public.

I agree. I’ve been in the PS scene and Xbox scene since the start in which the Xbox scene in comparison is way beyond in terms of efficiency and having a supportive community base. Furthermore you are also very wrong, there are devs releasing. They do not keep them to themselves, there way too many issues; it’s not as simple as it seems to just put out such a powerful tool. It’s like the creation of the Nuclear Bomb. If they were hiding stuff, then why were people able to test it?

Coldbird has delivered countless times to this scene, but maybe you weren’t around for the past 2 years, when the Pro team was one of the few who still cared enough for the PSP. Maybe you also missed Pro Online, the one big scene announcement on the scene this year, and maybe you missed the detail where it says Coldbird is paying for the server from his own pocket. Talk about being ungrateful, saying a guy like Coldbird is a ***.

I know you’ve been around for a long time, and all I’ve seen you do as long as I’ve been on the psp scene is complaining constantly. Just find exploits on your own, or at least contribute something other than rants, then you can talk.

Additionally, Sony is much much more inclined to sue people, did you miss the news last year too? People are not stupid enough that they want to get sued over a game console. This is not about keeping the exploit for themselves, this is about protecting their *** first.

You don’t like the rules of this scene? Then come up with your own exploits, and change the rules. Beggars can’t be choosers.

I’ve done things in the scene and what I’ve done I’ve released but its all been anonymously. I’m not stupid enough to sign my work like half the “fame hunters” out there. I release things for the scene. I’ve moved from the PSP to the PS3 and when PS3CFW first came out I released a lot and again it all was anonymously as I’m not a fame hunter. I’ve also put my hand up for anyone wanting to release anything to do it under my name or give it to me and I’ll release it as I’m not scared of Sony. Let them come and sue me and I’ll laugh at them in court. I’ve already taken them to court 3 times and won each time.

You know why this release doesn’t work for anyone? It’s because he’s signed it to only work on 1 Vita. THATS why the PS scene sucks when A-holes like him do that. HOW is the scene supposed to grow when people lock down things like this. Thats what the scene is supposed to do, REMOVE DRM NOT insert their own drm. Even if it is an internal thing WHY lock it down? If it does get leaked there might be someone better that can fix it and get it working better than the original dev can but as its locked up nobody can do a thing with it but look at a useless file and wonder. I’ve left the PSP scene years ago as there are too many a-holes in it. Mainly the devs. they have their own little group and dont like to share with anyone. If someone finds a way to play backups thats kept to themselves until they remove all ability to play backups then release it. Thats what the scene started as. NOT a way for homebrew a way to play backups. It started years ago with carts then mod chips and when it got to the xbox360 it was just a firmware modification. Same with the PSP and PS3, just a firmware mod and backups can be played but the devs dont like that so they try their hardest to block it and not release it to the public if it can play backups.

I bet there is probably a real Vita CFW but not released coz it can play backups and they haven’t found a way to block backups from being played thats why they haven’t released it. THATS why the PS SCENE SUCKS and full of A-HOLES.

Again, if you don’t like ethical hacking, feel free to release stuff on your own. I personally take pride to know that the work in which I am personally involved is not sc*** anybody up, even if I know not everybody thinks like that. You like backups and stuff, good for you, but don’t insist that people who are more on the “homebrew” side work to fulfill your desires 🙂

Wait, did you just say ‘ethical hacking’? I’m sorry, Wololo, but what a bunch of horseshit. Hacking is hacking, and it’s always done for the purpose of forcing something to do something it wasn’t meant to. This is already a breach of ethics, so hiding under the white lie of protecting the future of the hardware just doesn’t hold water.

As far as leaking hacks early, it’s a breach of trust and that’s also unethical..But when you’re dealing with an unethical situation, how can you reasonably expect people to take trust seriously?

@ProgZ if you can’t make a difference between what we do on this site and piracy, I think you lack perspective. Ethics are of course always subjective, but your definition sounds very extreme to the point of being ridiculous.

By the way, I am into “ethical” hacking not for ethical reasons, just because I happen to have no personal interest in pirating games or playing backups, so this is more circumstantial in my case, I believe I’ve made that pretty clear several times. I’m not pretending anybody’s trying to shield Sony from anything here, do not put words in my mouth.

Really? She’s had the exploit for months and when it finally gets leaked she goes off crying. She needs to grow up and get out of preschool and into the real world where the public are waiting for things like this and to release them so other people and devs can better it NOT keep it hidden forever and not release it. If it was a new hack and its only been around for a few weeks and needs work then ok, but this has been around for at least 6 months and just not released coz they want to keep it from the public.

1) Big chance he is using a proxy. 2) Focusing on this individual is just stupid, its a kid. 3) If you can’t find his IP, what are you planning to do with it ? And even if you had the knowledge, beside formatting his hdd (that is what he should do) and putting his e-mail into asian-bride.ext there is little you can do, unlike Holywood movies.

Hang on. If he encrypted it to only work with that 1 Vita then WHY did he leave the scene when it got leaked? If it cant run on anyone elses Vita then whats the problem? Is he a total girl and having a cry coz the public know about it now? WHY doesn’t he finish it as nobody can use the leaked files so him leaving the scene is just him having a cry.

Yup… same here. I don’t get it. If it’s encrypted then nothing got leaked. If it can be decrypted than all this talk about “taking the CFW with me to the grave” is pointless. I don’t get this drama. Really… I don’t. It doesn’t have any sense.

OMG… I know that basic logic is not the strong side of many people but come on: acting non-sense just because you can doesn’t make your actions less non-sense. All logic aside for a moment – sorry, but for me actions like “now I’m taking my toys and leaving the sandbox and you can’t have them *sticks out tongue*” is so 3rd grade. Really… Coldbird’s blog post is very interesting, I love his (her?) work on the PSP but the part about leaving and taking the toys with him/her is the most childish thing I’ve read since mathieulh on the PS3 scene. Seriously… man up.

The things that were leaked are a relatively old build. In the meantime, the CFW has been improved *a lot*, and that’s what the community will never get. Sure, eventually we’ll have a working CFW, but not the one with all the cool stuff that was supposed to be in it (full PSX support for example will be missing, I assume)

Ekhm… so the point still stands 😀 … Nothing serious got leaked (?). Just an encrypted old build with no great features 🙂 . I’m sorry for being so picky and maybe annoying, but I’m just trying to grasp if all these files are worth the drama.

Well, err, “nothing serious” is a bit far fetched. A usermode exploit on an almost free game, a kernel exploit, and a CFW that had at least full homebrew support and full iso support. I don’t know about plugins and PSX support, but that’s already quite a lot that got leaked here.

wololo: true there. The exploit was leaked – that is a valid point, but like you said in the past: Sony doesn’t check all it’s other PSN games for a similar flaw but creates black lists, so still a new game might come up at one point with the same exploits (maybe).

ji5aw: man… I’m a junior corporate software dev after a good technical university and if kids are able to find exploits like these in software and hardware then I’m starting to think that I somehow wasted by years in college and really know nothing 😀 😀 .

Stop talking ***. You know it that you will never release a CFW that has ISO support. Thats what all you devs are trying to do, stop the public playing backups. This is why coldbird is having a huge cry. This leak is useless as it doesn’t work for anyone so the only thing that is really leaked is the name of the game. Bit if a pissy effort in that coldbird is leaving the scene coz the name of the game got released.

The public want an ISO loader. The PSP already has a full CFW and ISO loaders so why such fuss stopping the Vita from playing ISOs? Even if the Vita can only play PSP ISOs thats good enough till the next exploit is found and released.

Look at the Nintendo DS scene. The DSi and 3DS haven’t been hacked but they can still play DS backups and thats good enough to keep the scene happy. The 360 can play backups and do you see a loss in sales of consoles or loss in sales of games? NOPE so running backups doesn’t really hurt at all. The only scene with problems is the PS scene. Its full of ***. If you got a working exploit then release it instead of holding on to it with the hope Sony wont block it in their next firmware. The real waste is if you have an exploit and it gets blocked before you release it. If you did release it someone else could’ve used it to find a better exploit. What do you think Geohot did. He released his exploit and other better ones were found.

I stand to my point. You want the scene to be different? Make it different and stop ranting, because now you sound like a broken record. BTW yelling your rage at me won’t change a thing, I don’t have a kernel exploit. And all the exploits I’ve had, I constantly turned into useful releases of VHBL. VHBL is not enough for you? Well send me a kernel exploit and I’ll see what I can do.

Your “anonymous” work, obviously, doesn’t count. Anybody can pretend they have helped the scene anonymously with no proof whatsoever. The visible things, however, is that for as long as I can remember, you’ve been demanding stuff and constantly complaining on the PSP scene without ever giving anything back. I’m surprised you’re still around if you hate that scene so much, I can’t think of anybody who’s been on the scene for longer than you and I, who still are so emotional about this. Most people of your era have moved on, why don’t you?

No need to be aggressive. I have one other nickname (iPhone) besides this one and it was only used for humorous reason in a topic concerning Apple, I think. Not trying to be anonymous. Even the email is real. I’m just honestly speaking my mind in a cultural manner even if others might not like it.

After watching more videos from Sam’s channel, it seems like he is trying to blame The Z for giving him the files. It’s almost like he’s saying, if The Z didn’t give me the files, I wouldn’t have leaked them. Blame him, not me. If Person A gave Person B 100 bucks and Person B spends it all on drugs and alcohol and buys a gun and kills a bunch of people, you can’t just blame it on Person A and be like it’s his fault for giving me the money. It does not work that way.

Coldbird, you have rocked my PSP world. Thank you for everything that you have contributed to this community and it’s people like you who I strive to be. I wish for you the best in all that you put your heart to. Sincerest thanks and blessings.

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